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Progress and Setbacks

I wrote the other day about my writing progress so today I thought I’d write about the other thing that’s been a big a big concern in my life. My health.

Again, feel free to skip this if you’re not interested.

With the coming of the new year I got something that I hadn’t had in about ten years. Health insurance. Thank you Obamacare, and mainly the state of Washington for doing such a great job of implementing it. I thought since I had this marvelous thing I’d take the opportunity to do what I hadn’t done in almost a decade. I went to the doctor.

Well, first I tried to go to the dentist. That was a pain in the ass and I still haven’t gotten my cavities filled, nor am I likely to for several more months because of the restrictions on dental care via my state health insurance, and the fact that it’s bloody expensive just to get x-rays, let alone treatment, for teeth without insurance.

But I was talking about the other Doctor. The one who sticks you with needles, takes your blood, and runs you through a ringer to see how fit (or unfit) you are.

All the tests came back and I was basically told “eat better and exercise or you’re going to get diabetes, and/or a heart problem.)

I’m 37. I’m too young to have a heart problem. And the thing is I know diabetes runs in my family, and that I was already having issues with my blood sugars. When you get shaky and faint because of certain things you eat you tend to know these things. I also knew my heart wasn’t as strong as it should be. I have a 80 beats per min heart rate when I’m resting, and if I exercise it gets up to 190-200. That’s not good.

Knowing it, and seeing it in black and white might be two different things. Or it could have been the energy drink I had the other day that made me start shaking. Or the dizzy spells that happen when I don’t eat right. Either way, I think it was the kick in my pants I needed to finally do something about it, like seeing the graphs for my writing. I’m not sure. I just know I don’t want to die of a heart attack when I’m 45 because I’m a lazy girl who likes doughnuts and mac n cheese.

So I’ve been exercising, and I’ve been sitting here looking at the candy bar my children eating wishing I could eat it and knowing I shouldn’t. Yay self control!

Eating right isn’t that difficult. I love fruits and veggies. Not big on meat. No problem giving up pasta either.

It’s the exercise. I hate running on treadmills, and using ellipticals. I hate feeling my heart trying to burst. I hate getting hot and sweaty and just gross. I really hate feeling like I’m wasting time in a gym when I could have been writing, or playing a game, or going to a movie.

The only exercise I’ve liked at all was belly dancing, and then it’s mostly my self esteem that gets in the way.

So, for now I’m just trying to get out, on my feet, and doing something more often so that I can try and get a little healthier. Maybe some day I’ll find something physical I enjoy. Till then… still going to do it. It’s better then shooting a needle full of insulin in myself every day.

4 thoughts on “Progress and Setbacks”

I’m in a similar situation. I’m 39 and had extremely high blood pressure (156/70) when I went to the doctor a couple of years ago. It’s under control with meds (135/65), but what would really kick it in the butt is losing weight.

I’m the opposite when it comes to diet and exercise, though. I like working out. I have difficulty motivating myself to get started, but once I’m in the gym, I enjoy it. But eating right is almost impossible long term for me. I’ve tried all kinds of things, some of them work for a while (Like 4 Hour Body) some of them don’t work at all (Anything I’ve come up with).

Lately, I’ve been wanting to try again. I’ll be 40 in a year’s time and it would be nice not to be so heavy then. Dropping the risk of heart attacks and diabetes would be a plus 🙂

The only thing I’ve found that works for me to eat right is just not buy any of the pre-processed crap anymore. The more I actually have to cook things the less I eat. Every now and then I’ll get a treat for me and the kids, like today I bought ice cream, but I purposely get it in small portions even though it’s more expensive so that we can’t eat much. Then I always give the kids larger portions so I eat less.

At first it was the hunger that was an issue, but if you just tough it out and drink water, or filling things which are healthy like celery, then the hunger eventually goes back to normal. Also, it’s good to remember that the first sign your body gives you that you are thirsty is usually hunger. There are a lot of people that feed their dehydration food because they forgot what it’s like to be thirsty. I love water, and drink TONS of it, so when I forget, or get busy or something I know pretty quickly that I am thirsty, and it almost always starts by feeling like I’m hungry.

That’s very true about thirst manifesting as hunger. I noticed that recently too.

On pre-processed stuff, we never eat much of it in our house anyway. Everything is wholegrain, but my weight rockets up anyway. It’s just a carb thing. If I have carbs, I gain weight. If I don’t, I lose weight veeerry slooowwwlly 🙂